The judge chastised Van Den Heuvel for trying to delay the 2-year-old case at the last minute.

“Intent to defraud was part of your plea (to the charge),” Griesbach said. “I cannot accept that you lied under oath simply to advance the proceedings. It’s gamesmanship. It will not be tolerated.” …

After rejecting Van Den Heuvel’s attempt to withdraw his plea, Griesbach said a prison term was warranted based on Van Den Heuvel’s continued insistence that he’d done nothing wrong.

He said Van Den Heuvel’s family support, business acumen, his claims of trying to benefit those who borrowed money on his behalf, and his support of local nonprofits made his decision to conspire to defraud banks all the more disturbing.

“Mr. Van Den Heuvel presents himself as a selfless entrepreneur and philanthropist even today,” Griesbach said. “It is a lie. He can’t admit (his role) to himself, his family or this court. He has delayed the proceedings with motions that are frivolous. It tells ushe’s still not gotten the message that what he believes is a lie.”

After multiple legal maneuvers failed to delay Friday’s hearing, Ron Van Den Heuvel was sentenced to three years in federal prison and three years supervised release in a bank fraud scheme.

The owner of De Pere-based Green Box was also ordered to pay $316,445.79 in restitution. …

Judge William Griesbach noted there wasn’t one lapse of judgement; there were seven loans which used straw borrowers to funnel him money. He called Van Den Heuvel’s actions “flagant fraud” which required punishment. …

Judge Greisbach noted Van Den Heuvel did not own up to his actions, saying there was “little hope of rehabilitation“ when he isn’t honest with himself about what he did. …

He also faces prosecution in a second case, which is still pending. A scheduling conference will be held March 16 [2018]. In that case, prosecutors allege Van Den Heuvel raised more than $9 million from investors, including the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., for his company, Green Box, but used some of the money on personal items, including a car and Packers tickets. If convicted of all 14 counts, he faces up 240 years in prison and more than $2.5 million in fines.

A De Pere businessman will be sentenced as scheduled Friday in a bank fraud case, a judge ruled Thursday – but the defense attorney subsequently asked to withdraw from the case.

Ron Van Den Heuvel has filed three motions to delay the sentencing and one motion to withdraw his guilty plea on a count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Federal Judge William Griesbach previously denied two motions to postpone the hearing, and today denied the two most recent motions, according to court records.

After Judge Griesbach entered the order, defense attorney Robert LeBell filed a motion asking to withdraw from the case.

“AS GROUNDS THEREFORE it is maintained that a breakdown in communications has occurred to the extent that further competent representation cannot be provided,” LeBell wrote.

After two motions to delay the sentencing were denied, Van Den Heuvel filed a motion Tuesday, asking to withdraw his plea.

But in a 14-page response filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors call the motion “delay tactics and gamesmanship” and say it should be denied.

Prosecutors point out Judge William Griesbach had a lengthy conversation with Van Den Heuvel about the his plea, it being voluntary, and the evidence being used as the basis for the conviction. Van Den Heuvel agreed on all points, prosecutors note.

“Both the reason for and the length of the adjournment requested are too indefinite for the motion to be granted. If the defendant is in need of additional time to prepare for sentencing, he should explain to the court how much time he needs and why. A vague reference to “matters that may have an impact on the disposition of this matter” are simply insufficient for the court to determine whether or not an adjournment is warranted,” the judge wrote.

Judge Griesbach did leave the door open, however, for Van Den Heuvel to file a more detailed motion indicating why he needs more time.

In the motion filed Wednesday, defense attorney Robert LeBell says “There are matters which are currently being reviewed by the defendant which may have impact on the disposition of this matter. As such, the defendant respectfully requests that the court afford that time to effectuate the review. It is therefore requested that the matter be adjourned for a relatively short period of time after January 5, 2018.”

LeBell’s motion does not delineate or repeat the specific claims Van Den Heuvel made in his letter, however.

November 18, 2017GBPG: Letter to the Editor – Law takes away local control

GREEN BAY – Changes in state law are coming that will take away the ability of cities, villages, towns and counties to have a say in what projects happen in their local communities and backyards.

Senate Bill 378 and Assembly Bill 479, the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, passed the Legislature in its final days of the session. The bill removes the deliberative process in the issuance of conditional use permits, or CUPs. Under then proposed change, public testimony could no longer be used to deny an applicant. If the applicant meets, or agrees to meet, the criteria of the CUP, the municipality would be required to issue it.

Public input was crucial in proposed projects like the failed Walmart Supercenter in downtown Green Bay or the revocation of the CUP for Oneida Seven Generations Corp.’s plannedtrash incinerator.

CUPs are designed to be flexible tools for municipalities. Citizens can weigh in and their ideas and concerns can lead to specific conditions for approval within a zoning district. Denials can open municipalities to litigation. However, a local municipality should be able to decide on issuing a CUP, as long as it does not arbitrarily deny a permit or place unreasonable conditions on upon it.

The erosion of local control is not new to state lawmakers. They have already passed nearly 140 new laws that in some way erode the decision-making power of elected or appointed bodies. This needs to end. People power must be restored. I want to be able to say ‘not in my neighborhood.’

KESHENA, WI – The Menominee Indian Tribe [of Wisconsin / MITW] intends to sue the U.S. government for giving up its authority over a proposal to build an open-pit sulfide mine in the Upper Peninsula.

The tribe, represented by a national activist law firm, has issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the proposed Back 40 mine on the Menominee River. The river flows into Green Bay and serves as the border between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The 60-day notice is a required step under the Clean Water Act, according to Janette Brimmer, a lawyer for Earthjustice, the same nonprofit firm that represented the Standing Rock Sioux in their actions against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

If the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers take back authority from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the Menominees would drop the legal action, Brimmer said.

Michigan and New Jersey are the only states that have sought and received permission from the EPA to administer the Clean Water Act. In other states, the Corps of Engineers oversees discharge permits and rules governing dredging or filling wetlands.

Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA may delegate that authority to the states, but it isn’t a blanket rule, Brimmer said. Interstate waters, or even on waters that potentially could support interstate commerce, must remain under federal jurisdiction, she said.

But Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality has already granted three permits to Aquila Resources, which needs just one more permit to dig an open-pit mine for gold, zinc, copper and silver in the Lake Township in the Upper Peninsula.

The Canadian-based company already has invested more than $70 million in site acquisition, development and research in the project. Michigan has issued it a nonferrous metallic mineral mining permit, an air use permit and pollutant discharge and elimination system permit. It still needs a wetlands permit to proceed. …

[MITW Chair Gary] Besaw said the tribe notified the Corps and the EPA in August that Michigan doesn’t legally have authority in the application process. The Corps sent the tribe a letter in September saying it lacked the authority to re-assume jurisdiction, and after failing to hear from the EPA, the tribe hired Earthjustice. …

The interstate nature of the Menominee River, and its potential as a means of interstate or foreign commerce, means it and its related wetlands can’t be delegated to state authority, according to the notification letter Earthjustice sent to the Corps and EPA.

“The Corps’ own study in 1979 and subsequent recommendation by its counsel finds this to be true, beginning with extensive use of the Menominee River and its tributaries for commerce associated with logging and power generation through present-day use for recreation, tourism and fishing,” the letter states. “The entirety of Menominee River and its adjacent wetlands are not delegable, nor could they have been delegated, to the State of Michigan for Section 404 permitting and therefore the State of Michigan cannot exercise Section 404 jurisdiction for the Back Forty Project permitting.”

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin [MITW] on Monday formally challenged plans for a huge mine just over the state line in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a case the tribal chairman said has national significance. …

A leading national environmental law firm representing the Keshena-based tribe filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the federal government.

The tribe says it has been deprived of treaty rights that are supposed to protect its cultural and historical sites because the federal government has delegated to the state of Michigan too much authority for permitting mines like the one proposed amid tribal burial mounds along the Menominee River.

“We tell the state of Michigan we want our rights, and the state says ‘We don’t have a treaty with you,’” tribal chairman Gary Besaw said.

Such disputes could become widespread if more states seek the extra authority under the encouragement of Trump administration officials like Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, Besaw said.

“We know Scott Pruitt with EPA is actually pursuing that mantra of … delegating to states,” Besaw said. “We want Aquila and the potential investors of Aquila to know that we aren’t going down without a fight.”

The tribe has hired the San Francisco-based Earthjustice to represent it. Earthjustice has represented the Standing Rock Sioux against the Dakota Access Pipeline, sued the EPA over the pace of enforcement of pollution laws in poor areas and gone to court to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is linked to developmental disorders.

“This puts the federal government on notice,” Besaw said. “If we continue to be ignored we will pursue federal litigation.”

Earthjustice filed the 60-day notice with Pruitt, the EPA Regional office in Chicago, acting secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and Army Corps of Engineers officers in Detroit and Washington, D.C. The Army Corps is involved in permitting disturbances of wetlands and waterways, while the EPA administers water and air quality. …

Earthjustice attorney Janette Brimmer said the wetlands along Menominee River that runs by the mine site and forms part of the border between the two states should be regulated by the federal government because it is a commercially navigable interstate waterway.

“The Clean Water Act makes it very clear that the authority to dig up and potentially pollute the Menominee River and its wetlands cannot be delegated down to a single state,” Brimmer said in a statement. “The waters and wetlands that will be affected by this huge, potentially very damaging industrial project do not ‘belong’ only to the State of Michigan. They must be protected for everyone, and it’s the EPA and the Corps’ mandatory duty to assume jurisdiction over the permit application.”

GREEN BAY, Wis. – A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a former Menominee Tribal Police officer must stay behind bars as he faces charges of sending sexually explicit messages to an underage girl.

Basil O’Kimosh is accused of repeatedly contacting a 15-year-old girl and trying to get her to engage in sexual acts.

O’Kimosh was fired from the Menominee Tribal Police force after his arrest.

According to a criminal complaint, O’Kimosh started communicating with the teenager in January 2017.

On November 1, he allegedly sent an inappropriate picture of himself to an undercover officer posing as the girl, court documents said.

O’Kimosh’s lawyers argued Tuesday that he should be released based on his ties to the area and lack of criminal history, but prosecutors argued his actions should prevent him from being released.

The judge agreed with the prosecution, not allowing O’Kimosh’s family to post a cash bond for his release. He’s concerned O’Kimosh could be a danger to the community if let go while the case proceeds, he said in court.

The U.S. Tax Court on Tuesday upheld the IRS’ disallowance of $92 million in bad-debt deductions claimed by a Wisconsin holding company with stakes in paper mill enterprises, finding the debt at issue was not bona fide.

Family-owned VHC Inc. had contended the company owned debt and not equity in a spinoff business operated by a relative, referred to as Ronald H. in the opinion and Ron Van Den Heuvel in VHC’s petition, and that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly disallowed deductions related to the debt, which a series of bad deals had rendered illiquid. However, in sustaining the IRS’ disallowance of related deductions for the 2004 through 2013 tax years, Tax Court Judge Kathleen Kerrigan narrowed in on the debt itself, noting that “there is no bad-debt deduction without bona fide debt.”

In finding that the debt did not hold up under scrutiny, Judge Kerrigan said VHC began issuing debt in the form of promissory notes to Van Den Heuvel’s acquired companies in 1997, notes that purported to reflect advances.

Van Den Heuvel and his companies routinely failed to comply with the terms of the promissory notes and VHC failed to enforce them, Judge Kerrigan said, but VHC continued to advance funds despite an increasing outstanding balance.

“VHC did not intend to create a bona fide debtor-creditor relationship, and the economic circumstances that existed during the time VHC made its advances establish that it did not reasonably expect repayment,” Judge Kerrigan said. “VHC is not entitled to related-party bad-debt deductions for the advances it made to Ronald H. and his related companies during the tax years at issue.”

WEDC board member Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, told the State Journal that board members were told the delay was due to a major last-minute problem identified in the contract. He said as oridinally written the contract wouldn’t have allowed the state to recoup taxpayer funds if the company didn’t fulfill its end of the deal – something he characterized to the newspapers as a “nuclear bomb.”

Carpenter said Friday the decision to release the contract came after a“long, drawn-out fight” and that it should have been done in the first place. He said the contract should be released sooner than Monday.

“It won’t give much time to read, review and understand the contract,” Carpenter said. “The Senate is in session all Tuesday and maybe Wednesday morning with a very tough calendar.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed formal charges Friday against Basil O’Kimosh Jr. including transferring obscene material to a minor under 16, engaging in sexually explicit conduct with a minor under 18, and attempted enticement of a child.

According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Sarah Deamron, the girl said O’Kimosh started chatting with her through Facebook Messenger in January, and in April asked her to start using the Snapchat app.

The girl said O’Kimosh kept asking her to meet with him for sex, and one time she did meet him in-person near her house while he was working and she told him she was 15, but he continued contacting her.

Wednesday, Agent Deamron posed as the girl on Snapchat. The agent says O’Kimosh asked her for naked pictures, including her privates, and sent her a naked picture, and continued asking for sex.

O’Kimosh was on duty at the time.

The agent, posing as the girl, agreed to meet O’Kimosh and he suggested a meeting place. The officer went there but then drove away, saying he was summoned but would be back.

O’Kimosh was arrested on Thursday and fired the same day, the chairman’s office says.

The criminal complaint says when he was arrested O’Kimosh admitted to sending his naked photo to the girl on Snapchat, and that he planned to meet the girl, but denied that it was for sex.

The chairman’s office says O’Kimosh passed background checks and psychological examinations when he re-joined the police department in July, six months after he began contacting the girl on Facebook Messenger.

O’Kimosh previously worked for the police department from 2010 to 2016. He resigned in April 2016 citing disagreements with a supervisor.

Keshena, WI – The Menominee Tribal Police department is asking the community to check their children’s Halloween candy thoroughly after a substance found in a child’s candy has tested positive formeth.

According to the police department’s Facebook page, the Menominee police received a complaint of a suspicious package located in a child’s Halloween candy. A small yellow Ziploc type baggy containing a crystalline powder was located, that was later identified as methamphetamine.

The parent reported the child trick-or-treated in the Keshena area on the Menominee Indian Reservation.

I was most disturbed when [WEDC] Secretary [Mark] Hogan flat-out said “no” to my request to release documents to [Legislative Audit Bureau] so auditors could complete their work. The document I wanted released was a study by an independent attorney the state paid $8,600 to answer the question: “Is WEDC complying with statutes?” (are they following the law?)

This question was central to the findings of the audit. If agency leaders didn’t think there was a law they needed to follow, I had no hope they would follow the audit recommendations and adopt verification policies and procedures.

I left the hearing with many unanswered questions. Does Secretary Hogan understand he must follow the law? What is Secretary Hogan hiding in the document he refused to release to auditors? How can lawmakers stop WEDC from rewriting contracts if companies don’t deliver? How can we get an accurate count for how many jobs were created with the millions of taxpayer dollars?

But the most pressing question was; how can we possibly trust WEDC to oversee a $3 billion contract with Foxconn?

Despite being paid for entirely with public funds, the $3 billion contract with Foxconn is not public. Nor do lawmakers who approved the plan know what problems exist in the draft contract. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Lawmakers and the public cannot see the details and are asked to trust WEDC negotiating the deal and later overseeing the Foxconn’s compliance.

But is WEDC worthy of our trust? …

In the [nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau] LAB’s own evaluation of completed economic development projects, auditors’ findings included: companies gave money for job creation without any contract requiring such, companies quitting before the end of their contract period without delivering promised jobs, contracts to create jobs were written with no specific number of jobs to be created, WEDC forgave loans even though the company created or retained a lower number of jobs than required, and WEDC counting twice the number of jobs created by a company.

If Wisconsin taxpayers cannot be confident after seven years and the investment of hundreds of millions of state dollars that promised jobs were created, how can we possibly be confident WEDC can negotiate and oversee a $3 billion contract?

No local government would ever agree to spend money without seeing a contract. No banker would agree to loan funds without a contract. No businessperson would ever commit funds without a contract.

Lawmakers bought a pig in a poke – an unknown deal.

WEDC has not earned lawmakers trust, nor that of the public. Lawmakers can and should do more to oversee this project.

Board members must demand to see the contract and review all the details before approving the deal to pave the way for the Taiwanese manufacturer to build its $10 billion manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant. This deal is too important for anything less.

The response from WEDC that the process the agency is following for approving the Foxconn award is the same as for all other major awards approved by the agency is also troubling. The board should review contracts on all major incentive deals, no matter if they are for $10 million or $3 billion, as they are talking about using state tax dollars.

Gov. Scott Walker and his appointees to WEDC must do everything they can to assure the state is getting the best deal possible in the Foxconn contract. And the best way to do that is to have anopen and transparent process.

Lower Brule Tribal Council members were among those who received payments from a taxpayer guaranteed loan that was used to buy a failing Wall Street brokerage firm.

But the payments to tribal members were not illegal and simply part of doing business in Indian Country.

Those are among the conclusions of a U.S. Department of Interior investigation into the tribe’s purchase of Westrock Group, a brokerage that went bankrupt shortly after the Lower Brule tribe bought it. The six-page Office of Inspector General investigation was completed earlier this year but not publicly released until Argus Leader Media filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The findings contradict previous claims made by tribal officials that they did not receive money from the deal, which hinged on a $22 million loan guarantee from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The tribe, through its entity known as the Lower Brule Community Development Enterprises, used $20 million of the loan guarantee to acquire Westrock after the Great American Life Insurance Co. bought the guarantee. The influx of cash allowed the tribe to pay off Westrock’s debt. …

The OIG investigation was also critical of the BIA’s process for issuing loan guarantees. The former chief of the bureau’s Division of Capital Investment, Philip Viles, told investigators that the loans were “inherently risky.” Despite that, there was bureaucratic pressure to use as much of the loan budget as possible regardless of risk to taxpayers, and Viles’ performance ratings were tied to issuing loans.

“Each year,” the OIG investigation concluded, “DCI received a budget (capacity) representing the amount of government funds it could obligate for future loan guarantees. Viles said DCI felt tremendous pressure to use all funds to either maintain or increase future budgets.”

“We could have given [Foxconn] all this money and we wouldn’t have been able to get it back,” [WEDC board member Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee] said.

The state is planning to give the company $3 billion in refundable tax credits[.] …

Carpenter said the problem was “more than a technical issue.” …

Democrats on the Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee urged [WEDC CEO Mark] Hogan to release the contract details publicly before the board votes on it. Carpenter has asked that the WEDC board be allowed to review the contract before voting, but as is common practice, the board will only vote on a staff review and summary of the deal.

[WEDC CEO Mark] Hogan declined to change the process[.] …

The audit committee had been scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the latest state audit of WEDC, made public in May. The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau reviewed 133 awards and found for a third consecutive biennial audit that the agency did not annually verify job-related information as required by law. …

The audit found the agency couldn’t be certain about the number of jobs created or retained as a result of those awards. It also found the agency can’t be certain about the accuracy of jobs information in its online database because it didn’t verify the information submitted by tax credit recipients, and didn’t contractually require grant and loan recipients to submit detailed information on job retention and creation.

The audit also found the amount of uncollectable loans was $11 million in December 2016, up from $1.3 million two years earlier. [WEDC CEO Mark] Hogan said $2.3 million were loans forgiven because companies had fulfilled job-creation requirements, but Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, pointed out that the audit found the agency can’t prove those requirements were met.

We’reskeptical of the deal andurged more taxpayer protection. The least WEDC can do is respect the public’s right to know how its money is being spent by releasing the contract before it’s finalized.Allowingpublic scrutiny is the best way to ensure dollars aren’t wasted.

A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled Monday that a village must prove it has jurisdiction over the Oneida Nation [of Wisconsin / ONWI] to enforce a permit requirement for an annual festival on the tribe’s reservation.

[ONWI] filed a federal lawsuit last year against the [Village of Hobart], Wis., seeking to enjoin it from enforcing an ordinance that would require the tribe to obtain a special-events permit for events involving 50 or more people. The ordinance includes a penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. …

On Monday, U.S. District Judge William Griesbach granted Oneida Nation [of WI]’s motion to clarify the parties’ burdens of proof ahead of their expert disclosures.

The judge found that the tribe only needs to prove the creation of its reservation through the 1838 treaty and the applicability of Indian Reorganization Act to the tribe and its reservation, “except for the Nation’s actual title to the trust parcels at issue.”

Griesbach found that Hobart, on the other hand, must prove “that the Oneida Reservation has been diminished or disestablished by an act of Congress,” or that the village has jurisdiction over the tribe and reservation for some other reason.

“The entire village [of Hobart] is considered Indian country under federal law, unless the village is able to establish that Congress diminished the original Oneida reservation’s boundaries,” the judge wrote.

He added, “The village seeks to regulate the conduct of the Nation and its members within the boundaries of the Nation’s reservation…Absent Congressional authorization, a state may only regulate the property or conduct of a tribe or tribal-member in Indian country in ‘exceptional circumstances.’”

Joule Unlimited, a secretive green energy company that appears to have placed a big bet hiring Democratic insider John Podesta to its board, appears to have been doomed when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election.

When the 2016 presidential election ended, senior company executives admitted the prospects for their renewable energy “biofuels” company evaporated. “We had a lot of prospects last year,” former Joule CEO Brian Baynes told BioFuels Digest in a rare interview in July. “But those new investor prospects walked away, particularly post-election.”

Dmitry Akhanov, the president and CEO of Rusnano USA Inc., a Kremlin-owned venture capital firm nicknamed “Putin’s child,” oversaw the Russian government’s investment in Joule and sat on its board along with two other Russians with ties to the Kremlin. Akhavov agreed that Clinton’s loss doomed the company. …

As one of the biggest power players in Washington, Podesta could open doors for Joule. Obama’s first secretary of energy, Steven Chu, visited the company in November 2011, according to WikiLeaks.

Steven Chu also met in 2011 with former OSGC & GBRE President & longtime Oneida Gaming Commission Counsel Atty. William Cornelius, along with then-OBC Member & OSGC Liaison Brandon Stevens, currently OBC Vice-Chair.

Unlike Foxconn, one of the largest manufacturers in the world, Kestrel came to Wisconsin as a much riskier start-up company, having only built a single prototype for a new six-seater turboprop jet. The design and production had yet to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, a process that can take three to five years.

Investing in a start-up aviation company was a much riskier proposition than a typical start-up, said Bill Bower, a retired aerospace engineer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Eclipse Aviation went bankrupt in 2008 after trying to build an aircraft similar to Kestrel’s with more than $500 million in investments.

“If you had a bunch of people on the state board looking at this and there was nobody who really knew anything about the aircraft business they might get all starry-eyed and thinking this is like getting into show business,” Bower said. “If anybody on that board had talked to anybody in the aviation business, they would have rolled their eyes and thought, ‘You ought to look into that. Because everyone knows boutique aviation is loaded with dreamers and crackpots and con artists.’ ”

Kestrel CEO Alan Klapmeier didn’t respond to a request for comment. Kestrel merged with Eclipse in 2015 to form One Aviation. …

“Due to Kestrel’s inability to show measurable progress towards obtaining financing, WEDC is moving forward with legal action against the company,” WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said in a statement. “At this point, WEDC has not gone to court to recoup the funds, but we will pursue any and all remedies available to us to protect the state’s investment.”

A bogus scheme to build an eco-friendly “green energy” waste processing facility in Detroit defrauded lenders and investors — including Chinese investors hoping to qualify for U.S. visas — of $4,475,000, according to a federal grand jury in Milwaukee. …

Van Den Heuvel worked through Green Detroit Regional Center, which is owned by a Georgia law firm that is authorized to operate in Wayne, Livingston, St. Claire, Lapeer and Macomb counties, court documents said. The center finds “foreign clients, mainly from China and South Korea, to invest in large alternative energy projects,” according to its website.

“Green Detroit Regional Center promoted the EB-5 investments in Green Box Detroit based on Van Den Heuvel’s representations,” the SEC suit said. It said the chief executive officer of the Green Detroit Regional Center, Georgia lawyer Simon Ahn, marketed the project to investors through immigration consultants in China. Neither Ahn nor Green Detroit Regional Center have been charged or sued by the SEC.

Ahn said, “If the charges are true, it is completely shocking to learn about the extent that Ron Van Den Heuvel hid the truth from me,” the center and investors.

“All of us visited the plants in Wisconsin many times, including the potential site in Detroit, and everything checked out fine. All the financials from a recognized accounting firm indicated that everything was proceeding on track, Ahn said.

The SEC suit said Van Den Heuvel falsely told investors that the MEDC [Michigan Economic Development Corp.] had approved tax exempt bonds for the project. However, the MEDC rejected the request after discovering five tax liens, one construction lien, two state tax warrants, four civil judgments and three civil lawsuits, according to court documents.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. delayed a vote on a nearly $3 billion incentive package for Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn until November after an unspecified problem was discovered with the deal board members were set to vote on Tuesday.

Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, declined to describe the problem but characterized it as a “nuclear bomb” that, had it not been addressed, would have resulted in a contract that “would not have protected taxpayers whatsoever.” …

“If WEDC has been secretive in the past with protecting taxpayers, they’re continuing that to the Nth degree,” Carpenter said.

September 14, 2017:Bloomberg.com: How Rich Chinese Use Visa Fixers to Move to the U.S. Have a spare $500,000 to invest in an economically distressed American area (that actually isn’t distressed at all)? China’s EB-5 fixers will help you every step of the way.

According to TheGuardian, the Taiwanese giant Foxconn announced that it will build a $10 billion LCD panel manufacturing facility in Wisconsin that has been warmly welcomed. However, the state has a troubled history of economic development problems, and Foxconn, the supplier to Apple, Google, Amazon and many other technology giants, have been unsuccessful in the fulfillment of his promise. Newspapers should be more alert.

The deal is expected to generate 13,000 jobs in six years in return for about $3 billion in employee benefits. Only 3000 jobs come immediately. Moreover, the Washington Post has reported that Foxconn often does not keep the promise of doing so. By 2013, the company claims to employ 500 employees and invest $30 million in Pennsylvania. This plan was quickly dismissed.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was elected in 2010 in a committed campaign that will bring 250,000 jobs to the people. So far he has not done it yet. A successful project with Foxconn will be an important step in repairing his damaged reputation.

By the end of July, he had his objections to people suspected of the project. At a stop in Eau Claire as he traveled around the state to push for an agreement, the governor said, “There are a lot of people there fighting to give a reason for dislike the project. It’s normal for you, but I think they should go away.”

This project is not only a big win for Walker, but also the Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan – his area will most likely be where the plant was built – and both President Donald Trump. At a press conference, a senior government official shared that Foxconn’s announcement was “meaningful” because “it was a milestone in bringing advanced, specialized manufacturing technology [jobs] in the electronics field to the US.”

Mr. Trump has called on workers affected by the decline in US production in his campaign, with the promise of “America great again.” He pointed to bad trading as an important reason for the country’s economic problems and could do better.

“If I’m not elected, Foxconn will certainly not spend $10 billion,” he told the White House. Ryan said the statement showed commitment to “promoting US manufacturing and bringing jobs to the country” by Mr. Trump.

Great assertions have been made. Trump told the Wall Street Journal that Apple would build three plants in the United States. Walker named the area where Foxconn’s factories would be built there, the “Wisconsin Valley.”

However, the Yahoo Finance site has indicated that Foxconn uses robots. Therefore, Wisconsin people will have fewer job opportunities than they expect. The condition of workers at Foxconn’s big factories in China is controversial, for example the well-known Longhua factory has experienced a series of suicides of workers.

Jennifer Shilling, a Democrat from Wisconsin, publicly criticized the project. “The bottom line is that this company a history of making big announcements but it’s not working, I’m skeptical about this project and we’ll have to see if there’s a legislative craving. about a $1-to-3 billion enterprise benefit package.”

The Wisconsin legislature is controlled by the Republican Party. They will not need bipartisan approval to pass [grants?] that are likely to be out of the budget process.

Warnings

Foxconn’s investment agreements in Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Brazil failed. For example, in India in 2014, the company promised to invest $5 billion over five years, creating 50,000 jobs.

According to the Washington Post, the actual numbers are much lower. Safety concerns in the workplace will also hamper the Wisconsin project; Recent “right to work” laws will affect employee relations [at] the company.

Newspaper articles say the Wisconsin plant, which is expected to be three times the size of the Pentagon, will be of the largest foreign investments in US history to create jobs.

The average wage offered, plus welfare, is $53,000. The Wisconsin Senate and Walker Office did not provide an feedback on what types of jobs would occur and what skills should be employed. Foxconn, the maker of monitors and assembled phones and computers, is best known for its iPhone.

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is a member [partner?] of Foxconn. During Walker’s presidential race was distorted by questions about failed loans. Republican economist and donor Ron Van Den Heuvel has been indicted for borrowing $700,000 from a local bank. Many months after the WEDC was established in 2011, the agency, then led by Walker, lent him over $1.2 million, without a background check.

Similarly, the state’s production tax and agricultural taxes have been severely criticized, almost “wiping out the e income tax on industrial and agricultural producers.”

Six states are said to have negotiated with Foxconn. For the purpose of reducing property taxes and vocational training costs, the Wisconsin Budget Project (WBP) Joe Peacock has warned that the total cost of winning the race could exceed $3 billion. The same contract, he said, often ends up as a “total game 0” for the states.

Speaking in the discussion a day after the deal was announced, Walker said, “The recovery of subsidies is not the right target” and “protection measures” are being implemented. “My responsibility is to protect the state taxpayer,” he said.

A $176 million reorganization plan for Green Box NA Green Bay has been delayed by an inability to raise the cash needed to pay creditors.

GlenArbor LLC, a Chicago-based investor in Green Box, originally told U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Judge Beth Hanan the reorganization plan would be funded and able to pay $14 million to creditors by March 31. In a June 1 motion, the company asked the court to push the date back to Sept. 30.

The reorganization would roll up De Pere businessman Ron Van Den Heuvel’s web of companies into a new company that would secure the equipment, technology and money needed to operate a system that would recycle waste that typically ends up in landfills into reusable products.

“Principals of the debtor, despite using their best efforts, were unable to raise the funds contemplated which were, in effect, the financing necessary to bridge the gap between confirmation of the plan and the roll up contemplated under the plan,” the motion reads.

GlenArbor plans to provide updated engineering reports, business plans and appraisals to reassure potential investors that the business is sound. It said even creditors understand failure to secure investors would mean no one gets paid.

“If the roll up does not come to fruition, it is unlikely that the various claims will be paid to any extent, if at all,” the motion states. “The investment bank’s study of the business plan and operations will provide a basis for potential investors to reasonably assess whether to invest in the project.”

GlenArbor has spearheaded the reorganization effort since Van Den Heuvel sought protection from creditors in April 2016. Van Den Heuvel would retain an ownership stake in the revived venture, but he would not be involved in the company’s management.

When Green Box filed for bankruptcy, Van Den Heuvel listed less than $50,000 in assets and more than $10 million in debt. The company had been the subject of a string of lawsuits from unpaid creditors, including the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

The bulk of the $176 million sought to fund the new company would build a new sorting facility, expand existing operations, connect various parts of the operation, pay off creditors and ramp up operations.

If financing can be secured, the new company has agreed to pay:

»$605,000 in delinquent property, payroll and unemployment taxes Green Box owed to county, state and federal agencies.

»$13.1 million to secured claimants owed a total of $24.3 million, and

Citing a pre-sentence report, Outagamie County Judge Mark McGinnis said Vance Reed had stabbed his mother 11 years ago, threatened to kill people in the past and at one point started questioning his school principal about what it feels like to kill someone.

“Seems like it’s been 10 years in the making,” McGinnis said of Reed’s brutal stabbing of Harry Brown Bear, 77, and his wife, Lorraine Brown Bear, 67, in the couple’s home.

Oneida Eye has received multiple reports that Oneida Nation in Wisconsin members, including Oneida Nation High School Principal Artley Skenandore, have made repeated – sometimes daily – requests to the Oneida Business Committee, the Oneida Housing Authority, and the Oneida Police Dept. (where Artley’s wifeOPD Lieutenant Lisa Drew-Skenandore works) to gain access to the murder scene in order to take possession of Harry & Lorraine Brown Bears’ belongings, claiming that they had been ‘promised’ certain items by the Brown Bears.

In the13-page ruling, Judge William Griesbach said that because after the OSGC won a ruling in state court reversing the Council’s decision – but did not pursue the plant any further – the decision not to build belongs to the tribe, not the city.

“The fact that OSGC ultimately prevailed and could have completed the project had it chosen to do so also makes the City Council’s decision less shocking or egregious than a substantive due process violation requires. There is no suggestion that the City Council members were aware that delay would essentially kill the project because it would lose whatever economic viability it might have had. In the final analysis, the City’s action caused a delay in the project; it was apparently a change in other factors over which the City had no control that caused OSGC to abandon it,” the judge wrote.

In a statement, Mayor Jim Schmitt said, “We just learned the Federal Court dismissed the complaint filed by Oneida Seven Generations Corporation. The suit against the City of Green Bay was based on the revocation of a conditional use permit for their intended waste-to-energy facility. This is great news for City tax payers, as OSGC sought millions in damages from the City. The decision issued by Judge William C. Griesbach states that even though the City should not have revoked the permit, due process was adequately given. We respect the ruling by the federal court, and hope to move forward with mutual respect and relationships with the Oneida Nation [of WI].”

The Oneida Nation [of WI] has not responded to Fox 11’s request for comment.

Two-fifths of the past due loans involved awards to two companies: $3.4 million owed by aircraft manufacturer Kestrel; and$1.1 million owed by Green Box, an environmental technology company in De Pere. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported that in making the loan to Green Box WEDCfailed to turn up the many legal and financial problems of company Chairman Ron Van Den Heuvel.

Reed, 20, entered the plea to two counts of first-degree homicide Thursday and was found guilty by the Outagamie County judge.

Reed will be sentenced [July 10, 2017].

Investigators say around September 7, Reed, who was 19 at the time, had been drinking at Harry and Lorraine Brown Bears’ home on the Oneida reservation. He got into an argument with Harry and slit his throat, then stabbed Lorraine.

Police were asked to check on the couple after they hadn’t been seen in days. It was determined the Brown Bears were dead for as long as a week before they were found.

Police took DNA swabs from neighbors and witnesses, and blood stains found in the Brown Bears’ home matched Reed’s, and they say he confessed to the crimes.

In a decision issued late Wednesday, federal Judge William Griesbach denied the tribe’s motion to end the case with a ruling in its favor, and said the tribe needs to turn over information on boundaries and other issues to the village.

“The blanket stay of discovery requested by the Nation will tactically disadvantage the Village because it prevents the Village from effectively responding to the Nation’s motion for summary judgment or presenting its case. Rather than render a decision based on a less than complete record, the court finds that village is entitled to a reasonable opportunity to discover and present all evidence pertinent to the Nation’s challenge to enforcement of its Special Event Permit Ordinance and the Village’s defense thereof,” the judge wrote.

The federal indictment alleges that Piikkila, a loan officer at Horicon Bank in Appleton, approved a series of loans totaling more than $1 million. The indictment says Horicon Bank had told Piikkila not to loan any money to Van Den Heuvel, so none of the loans mentioned in the indictment were written to him by name. The couplehas pleaded not guilty.

Their 2015 indictment came six years after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against the company in Colorado, shut down the firm, and obtained a court order barring its principals from raising new funds. Various people linked to the company and its associated entities have agreed to a $6 million settlement with investors.

The Green Bay City Council fell one vote short of removing Mayor Jim Schmitt from office. The council voted 8-4 to remove him but state law required nine votes — a three-quarters majority. The vote came at 11:13 p.m., after more than four hours of arguments and deliberations.

Schmitt used his official position as Mayor to direct the City Clerk to conduct an audit of his campaign finance reports, thus merging his acts as mayor with his acts as a candidate. As a result, the Common Council has shown that it is proceeding on alleged wrongs connected to Schmitt’s actions as Mayor. …

ORDER

Schmitt’s Petition for a Writ of Prhohibition is DENIED. Schmitt is not entitled to an award of his costs and disbursements.

In January, Council President Tom De Wane and Vice President Mark Steuer hired Milwaukee attorney Jeremy Levinsonto guide the council through the removal hearing. On Feb. 7, the council notified Schmitt it would hold the hearing on Feb. 20. …

“He feels we don’t have the right to do this. The attorney we hired says we do,” De Wane said. “I really expect whoever looks at this filing will allow us to go forward.”

…Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt was told a year ago that a campaign finance investigation against three aldermen had been closed but said nothing. Schmitt, in December 2015, requested the investigation after one was launched into his campaign finances. The probe into the Mayor’s finances ultimately led to misdemeanor conviction charges against him.

Instead of responding to the OSGC claims,the city’s attorneys make a two-fold argumentfor why the case should be dismissed: the tribal company failed to exhaust its options in state court, and it doesn’t make a valid due process violation claim.

On the first point, the city notes that after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruledin May 2015 that the city improperly revoked the plant’s permit, OSGC never followed up with the courts to have the court order implemented. …

On the second point, the city argues that OSGC fails to meet the federal standards for making a due process violation claim. …

The city’s brief also argues that the OSGC wasn’t authorized by the Oneida General Tribal Council to pursue the lawsuit.

Areportreleased in February by Congress’s U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission agreed, singling out EB-5 as especially vulnerable to fraud and laying the blame in part on USCIS. “Given that USCIS is tasked primarily with customs and immigration matters, it is questionable whether this federal agency has the capability to properly oversee the economic dimension of the EB-5 application process at the local level,” the report says.

This is what allowed Luca International Group, a California oil company, to fleece Chinese investors out of $8 million dollars, as the SEC charged this month. The investors thought their money was going toward oil rigs in Texas and Louisiana when in fact, the SEC charged, it was simply being used to prop up a huge Ponzi scheme and fund the lavish lifestyles of the company’s owners. Luca alsopaidformer president George W. Bush $200,000 to speak at a conference designed to encourage Chinese investors to put their money in American oil. …

By the time the SEC began to suspect that Luca was a pyramid scheme, the company had already obtained approval from USCIS to solicit funds and netted $8 million from Chinese investors. The company trumpeted this approval onone of its websites, calling itself “USCIS approved” and boasting that it “can get you a green card with a $500,000 investment.”

To get USCIS approval for projects and so-called regional centers — corporate middlemen set up to facilitate the investments — companies have to submit detailed business plans and documentation attesting to the financial health of the businesses involved. Often, as in Luca’s case, both the regional centers and the projects themselves are set up by the same people. According to the SEC, Luca’s entire operation was a pyramid targeting Chinese and Chinese-American investors, which evidently went unnoticed by USCIS.

The City of Adams in central Wisconsin is making a big push into green energy, but questions are being raised about whether the gambit will heap too much risk on taxpayers.

The controversy centers on charges of conflict of interestinvolving the mayor and details of the deal in which the city — with a population of just under 2,000 — gives big incentives to a company that says it will build a world headquarters and manufacturing plant in a local industrial park.

Adams’ mayor, JanAlyn Baumgartner, now works for the company, GEITS Corp., which has U.S. offices in Madison and lists other offices in Italy, Australia and Singapore. The city has also given GEITS office space in Adams City Hall.

One critic of the project estimates the city’s commitment will cost $22 million over the next 25 years. …

GEITS stands for Global Environmental Infrastructure Technology Solutions, and according to its website, it specializes in renewable powergeneration, wastemanagement, watermanagement and urban renewal. …

Among the skeptics is Jim Gately, a retired lawyer who lives in Adams County.

“There’s a lot of things that don’t pass the smell test,” Gately said. “If they can do what they say they can do, God bless them; Adams County needs it.

“But I don’t want to see the city of Adams taken for a ride and become the first city in Wisconsin to file for bankruptcy.”

In his analysis for opponents, attorney McFarlin said the city’s contract with the GEITS revealed numerous deficiencies, including a failure to seek other bids for wastewater equipment and to obtain a performance bond to ensure the work will be completed.

When Julie Giese, a loan specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program, was told at a meeting last year there would be no competitive bidding for thewastewater project, she said that alone disqualified the project from being considered for funding.

“Everything was real secret,”Giese said. “They provided no documents. I asked for copies of plans, or information on the technology, and the contract — and I’ve got nothing.”

Ehlers, a firm hired by the city to assess the implications of the project, warned in a letter that the city needed to take steps to minimize risk to taxpayers. It also suggested that Adams officials review GEITS’ corporate financial statements and financial commitments it’s received for the project.

July 2011:5280 Magazine: The Biggest Green Scam in America – Denver’s Wayde McKelvy raised tens of millions of dollars for a new, clean-energy company that the SEC says was nothing more than an old-school Ponzi scheme.

Mahinder Tak, a radiation oncologist and retired US Army colonel, is another player on Washington’s cultural scene. Her home in a wooded area in Bethesda, where she lives with her entrepreneur husband, Sharad, houses arguably the largest personal collection of modern and contemporary Indian art in the United States. Last year Art & Antiques magazine listed her among the top 100 collectors of art in the country. …

Sharad Tak, the entrepreneur who lives in Bethesda, was the pioneer. In 1974, he lobbied for Indian-Americans to be considered minorities, enabling them to take advantage of incentives given to minority-owned businesses.

Tak’s company, ST Systems Corporation, provided programming and systems integration to agencies including NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration. He brought in other Indian-Americans to work with him, including Frank Islam[.]

Businessman Ronald Van Den Heuvel says he donated money through Wisconsin residents to Gov.Tommy Thompson’s campaign for several years while living in Georgia – an apparent violation of state election laws.

In a recent interview, Van Den Heuvel was questioned about $10,000 in campaign donations that he and his wife [Jan Marie Summers Van Den Heuvel] made one day before the state approved a large issue of tax-free bonds for one of his businesses. Van Den Heuvel responded by saying he had given similar amounts in the past.

When asked why reporters had not spotted those earlier donations on Thompson’s financial reports, Van Den Heuvel said, “Yeah, you may not have because when I was a Georgia resident, I gave it to people here.”

Those Wisconsin individuals, whom he did not name, then turned the money over to Thompson, he said. Van Den Heuvel, owner of VOS Electric in Green Bay and other businesses, said he moved to Wisconsin three years ago.

“I didn’t want to do it as a non-resident, which is fine,” he said. “You got to do some separate things if you’re a non-resident. I didn’t want to do that.”

Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board, said state law specifically bars people from laundering campaign donations or knowingly accepting laundered funds. Kennedy said it could be either a civil or criminal offense, depending on whether prosecutors believe they can prove the campaign money was given or received in intentional violation of the law.

Kevin Keane, spokesman for the governor, said the governor and his campaign were unaware of any laundered money. If Van Den Heuvel did pass money through others to Thompson, Keane said, the governor will return the money immediately once it is identified.

C. David Stellpflug, Van Den Heuvel’s lawyer, called the Journal Sentinel to say that his client was talking about giving money to political parties. But in his interview, Van Den Heuvel was critical of parties, specifically saying he did not give to the Republican National Committee.

“To me, parties – they kind of get in the way,” Van Den Heuvel said. “I like to know the person and what kind of person that person is.”

Like others before him, Ron Van Den Heuvel, a Green Bay-area entrepreneur, found the route to state largess with the help of Gov. Tommy G. Thompson.

Van Den Heuvel hit the jackpot in late September when an obscure state board awarded $24 million worth of tax-free bond financing to help him reopen an Oconto Falls tissue factory – the largest such approval this year and among the largest ever made by the state.

The award culminated nearly a year’s effort that included a formal application through the Commerce Department. But Van Den Heuvel worked informal channels to Thompson as well. And last May – the day before an initial financing award was made by the state – Van Den Heuvel and his wife [Jan Marie Summers Van Den Heuvel] donated a total of $10,000 to the governor’s campaign fund. Van Den Heuvel said he had been asked for the donation by Thompson’s fund-raiser in November 1996.

When asked by reporters last month about the campaign donations, Thompson moved quickly to return the money.

The subsidy will save Van Den Heuvel’s company at least $2 million in short-term financing costs, Van Den Heuvel said. The financing covers nearly half of the $52 million cost of renovating the Oconto Falls factory.

The circumstances of the case and others reviewed by the Journal Sentinel in an eight-month investigation suggest a trend in which donors and well-connected firms enjoy a close and mutually beneficial relationship with the Thompson administration.

“You don’t pay, you don’t play,” said a veteran lobbyist, speaking of state government generally, including the governor and legislators.

Most public attention has focused on Thompson’s upbeat personality and bulldog tenacity in achieving his goals during his unprecedented 11 years as governor. The newspaper’s investigation found another side of the Thompson story: an administration marked by the strong appearance offavoritism.

Thompson has relied on a close-knit group of lobbyists, corporate executives and friends to pull the strings of government, with many moving in and out of state jobs, the paper found. Some of those who were Thompson’s closest staff advisers now work as private consultants and lobbyists, trading on their access to the governor and blurring the line between government and private interests. …

As governor, Thompson has raised record sums, more than $6.5 million in his last run for governor and almost $15 million overall since his first gubernatorial bid in 1986.

The method for getting campaign money from firms interested in state help includes pleas made at opportune times.

In the Oconto Falls case, fund-raiser Prange called on Van Den Heuvel last November for a donation, a few months after Van Den Heuvel’s request for state aid had first been broached, according to Van Den Heuvel and state Commerce Department records. Prange was aware of Van Den Heuvel’s pending request for state financing aid when he asked for a donation, Van Den Heuvel said. Prange had approached him for donations in previous years.

“I made that $10,000 commitment to him in November (of 1996), OK?” said Van Den Heuvel. He claimed he’d been a longtime large donor to Thompson’s campaign, but the governor’s campaign finance records show just two other, smaller donations from Van Den Heuvel before the big donations were made last May.

Thompson insisted he never personally solicits donations and knows few details of how his campaign operation functions, despite his aggressive hands-on approach to campaigning and governing. But interviews with Thompson insiders, phone records and his own campaign records suggest the governor has taken a much more active role in his campaign money-raising machine.

The governor’s Capitol phone records, dating to January 1996, show 32 calls to fund-raiser Prange’s line at the governor’s campaign office, 26 calls to the state party or to state GOP chairman Dave Opitz, and 60 calls to the four businessmen who coordinate Thompson’s fund-raising strategy. They are Fred Luber, chief executive of Milwaukee’s Super Steel Products Corp.; J. Carleton “Sandy” MacNeil, a Mequon investment broker; Butch Johnson, president of Johnson Timber in Hayward; and San Orr Jr., chief executive of Wausau Paper Mills.

Thompson regularly phones and meets with those who run his fund-raising operation, including Klauser and other informal advisers outside of government. Although Klauser downplays his role, Klauser has expanded his campaign role since he left state government late last year to return to political consulting and lobbying, Thompson said. The governor only occasionally turns to Klauser for policy advice, he said, though others said Klauser’s policy role remained large. …

Allegations of influence peddling in the Thompson administration are the subject of an ongoing state Justice Department investigation. The investigation has focused on whether state favors have been granted in exchange for political donations. That probe started early this year with utility deals but has broadened to include other areas of state government, according to persons close to the case. The department declined to comment.

A Case Study

The Oconto Falls paper mill financing provides a case study on how influence works in the Thompson administration and who can help get deals done.

Last year, Van Den Heuvel’s Re-Box Packaging Co. hired investment banker P. Nicholas Hurtgen, a former top aide to Thompson and the brother-in-law of Thompson’s paid fund-raiser, Phil Prange. Hurtgen was hired as the project’s financial adviser, but he also helped open doors for Van Den Heuvel with the governor and other administration officials.

At a face-to-face meeting with Thompson in his Capitol office last January, the governor made a point of telling Van Den Heuvel that granting state aid wasn’t his call, but he encouraged him anyway. “I told him to work with (Commerce Secretary) Bill McCoshen. I’m almost positive of it.

Van Den Heuvel said that he and his wife, Jan, donated a total of $10,000 to the governor’s campaign account earlier this year — the checks were delivered May 15, one day before Re-Box Packaging won state approval for $9 million in tax-free bonds. That approval was intended for financing to build a De Pere factory for Re-Box.

Van Den Heuvel and two partners also each gave $500 to the governor three days before the state’s five-member Volume Cap Allocation Council voted on the financial aid. Three other partners gave a total of $2,100 between late April and June.

An hour after the newspaper asked Thompson about the donations, Thompson’s press secretary, Kevin Keane, said the Van Den Heuvels’ donations would be returned because “we are just not comfortable about” the timing of the cash gifts. Van Den Heuvel later confirmed that $10,000 of his donations were returned. Keane said the other donations might be returned.

Before using the $9 million in state financing, Van Den Heuvel decided to drop his aid application for the De Pere plant and apply for even more aid for PCDI Oconto Falls Tissue Inc., the tissue-mill project. The council that awarded the earlier sum readily agreed to authorize the $24 million in financing aid.

Commerce Department staffers who reviewed the Oconto proposal, however, declined to make any recommendation on the request, also noting the large sum, if approved, would “significantly impact” the amount of tax-free bonding authority available for other projects. Numerous other projects proposed by other firms were not funded by the council.

Van Den Heuvel made the project switch, he said, because the Oconto Falls mill offered the opportunity to get government financing aid for a much larger portion of that project’s overall costs than the $9 million financing offered him for the De Pere project.

Van Den Heuvel, Thompson and other administration officials say the project was approved on its merits and there was no link between the campaign cash and the state aid.

“None whatsoever,” Thompson said. “Absolutely none.”

The donations “wouldn’t have anything to do with” the state aid, Van Den Heuvel said.

Officials said the Oconto Falls mill will provide 160 jobs in an area hit hard by this year’s plant closure. The $24 million in financing aid, while large, was far less than the total of $70 million that Van Den Heuvel originally requested for the De Pere Re-Box project, state officials noted. …

However, lobbyists for major firms and interest groups who do business with the state, and business executives interviewed by the newspaper, said the fund-raising events are sold as prime opportunities to bend the governor’s ear on state issues – often worth millions to major players in issues ranging fromutility regulation to Indian gaming. The fund-raisers often include discussion of those issues. …

A second lobbyist said Thompson’s fund-raising machine “systematically and methodically” milked firms with state business for donations. “Everybody understands if you go and ask the government to do something, you are going to have to make contributions.”

Both lobbyists asked not to be named, saying they feared retribution for speaking out.

State phone records also showed top aides to the governor, with whom he regularly confers, made numerous calls to the Thompson campaign office and GOP fund-raisers.

Klauser, in his last three months as Thompson’s top aide, called Prange 19 times, his phone records show. And Commerce Secretary McCoshen, who oversees a wide range of state subsidy programs for businesses, including the Oconto Falls financing, called Prange and the governor’s campaign office 21 times since January 1995.

State phone records show a series of calls during the period Van Den Heuvel was negotiating for his state financing aid, including a string of calls linking Thompson, his campaign, top state officials and Hurtgen, Van Den Heuvel’s project manager.

Thompson acknowledged that he might have talked to Hurtgen, his former aide, about Van Den Heuvel’s request for state financing aid.

“Possibly could have,” Thompson said. “I don’t know.”

Hurtgen declined to comment. Matthews and McCoshen said their calls to Hurtgen were not related to the Van Den Heuvel project.

“I’ve been a supporter of Gov. Thompson for a long time. I happen to think he’s the best governor,” Van Den Heuvel said.